Love is a Flame
by Nuine
Summary: Taking place after the defeat of Buu, the warriors and their families finally have some time to settle down again. However, many a thing had changed between each and every one of them, and where something old crumbles apart, something new is beginning to piece itself together, bit by tiny bit. (The pairing that's sure is Goku/Vegeta, I won't disclose the others because, spoiler XD)


Hi there everybody! This is been a little something that's been ghosting through my mind for a while now, and I thought I'd give it a shot and try to write it out. I hope you'll enjoy the read; off we go!

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**Love Is a Flame**

**Chapter 1**

**An Unexpected Finding**

The honking of the car outside made her hurry. She gave herself another final look-over in the mirror: for her 38 years she looked more than presentable. She had left her long, black hair loose for a change, the raven, silky strands cascading down her back to just beneath the shoulder blades, a few wisps falling down her front and over her not very voluptuous but still nicely shaped bosom that was showcased in a decently cut v-neck of her white summer dress. The dress wasn't too short, she was no young girl anymore after all, but it still reached to a bit above the knees, leaving her smoothly shaved legs exposed, her little feet captured in a pair of white heel-strap sandals. Make-up had covered up the few wrinkles here and there, emphasized the dark color of her eyes and the most prominent trace of it was probably on her lips that shone in an alluring, cherry-red hue. A bracelet here, earrings there, a simple but classy necklace to grace the décolleté, the wedding ring however was absent from her finger.

Another honk and the woman hurried out of the master bedroom where she had been sleeping in alone for a couple of months now, her low heels soon clacking down the stairs.

"Well, I'll be going now. Dinner's in the fridge and in the oven," she spoke while passing the living room, grabbing her white purse on her way and standing in the foyer now, checking one last time if she had everything on her.

"Okay!", it sounded cheerfully as a tall presence appeared in the doorframe of the kitchen, gentle onyx eyes watching her being all excited and scatterbrained. Well. It was Chichi's first date since... years.

She looked up and traipsed her way over to the man by whose side she'd stood for almost two decades. "Goku-sa...", her hand touched upon his shoulder, causing him to look at her in question. She bit her lip, and he could clearly see the guilt in her ebony-colored eyes. Guilt that wasn't needed to be felt. "Are you sure you are okay with this?"

He smiled, bright and genuine as always. "Don't worry about me, Chi." Leaning down, he touched a soft kiss to her forehead. "I just want you to be happy; live a bit of life in the way you have always wanted to and have some of what I have never been able to give you." Maybe he shouldn't have said that, seeing her frown ruefully, but he was still as unskilled as ever in sealing his honesty.

"Goku, that's not true," she started. "You've given me so much-"

He hushed her by pressing his index finger to her lips. "I know." He had given her a lot and she had given him even more - two beautiful children, a warm home, her devotion, care and love for almost twenty years. Now it was his turn to give her something back; freedom, ordinariness, the fairy-tale that she had given up on during the years of their marriage. They had been happy together, no doubt... but now it was time for her to be happier than Goku could ever make her.

"Now go, he's waiting."

She gave him a faint smile of her own and rose to her tiptoes to give him a peck on his cheek. "Thank you," that whispered she then turned to walk out of the house, towards the not very expensive but still very nice, blue car waiting for her outside.

Son Goku waited until the door fell shut behind his wife's – well, now rather ex-wife's- back and sighed under his breath. He didn't really feel all too hungry yet and Goten would be home from school in another two hours anyway, so he could as well wait.

It was the last week before summer vacation and Goku looked forward to it because it meant that he could soon start sparring with his sons more often. Well, probably not with Gohan seeing as the boy was busy wooing his girlfriend - which unwittingly made Goku smile. Young and in love... he hoped his oldest would find all the happiness in the world with that girl. Videl seemed like a wonderful person and there was a glow she brought to Gohan's eyes that the boy's father could only good-heartedly envy, blessing her in the same breath for bringing so much joy to Gohan's life. Surely, Goku had liked Chichi, always did and always would, he protected her and did his best to make her happy but to love her the way that would make you shine from the inside out... No. He had never had that feeling touch upon his heart.

Sitting around in an empty house got boring quickly, so the earth-raised Saiyan took a flight out of the window. He wasn't hurrying, there was no particular place he wanted to go, just flying slowly and without really noticing much of the scenery stretching far beneath him. He was remembering back on a conversation that had happened a few weeks ago...

_"Goku-sa... Can I talk to you for a moment?"_

_"Sure, Chi. What is it?" _

_"Maybe it's better if we sit down..."_

_The tone of her voice had worried him. A year had passed since the defeat of Buu and they had wished Shen Long to erase all the people's memories of the rosa-colored Majin not so long ago so that Buu could start living in peace on earth's surface. During that year, Goku couldn't help noticing the small changes in their relationship... Chichi was still a loving mother and a great housewife but the two of them had grown more... distant than he used to remember them being. _

_He had always wanted to elaborate but somehow the occasion never seemed to turn up, he was so busy catching up on the time he'd missed on Earth – especially with Goten. The little guy adored his Dad and whatever time he didn't spend with his older brother or his best friend, he spend sparring or globetrotting with his father. Goku had even taken him to a few planets in outer space, showing him some fun and peculiar places he had been to after his triumph over Freeza. _

_Now he was worried, taking a seat opposite his wife at the kitchen table. She had her entwined hands lying atop the table and he saw her locked fingers twitch against each other briefly before she looked him in the eye. _

_"Goku...", the affectionate suffix she always used when addressing him had fallen off, making him all the more nervous. This really had to be something serious... Was something wrong with her? Was she sick, perhaps? Or was it about the boys? He fidgeted tensely in his seat._

_"I suppose there is no easy way to start this..." She took a deep breath, he could see her chest rising and falling with the inhale. "While you had been in Otherworld, I... met somebody."_

_Then silence and he gave her a confused look. Thus, she continued: "Another... man. He works at the grocery shop, the one I always visit, in the city. He has always been very nice to me but I swear we have never done anything- I have never been unfaithful to you, all we have been doing was just... talking._

_He had asked me out a couple of times but I never accepted; I told him I was married and had two children but he said he could see that my marriage didn't seem to make me as happy as I deserved to be. He said he'd wait as long as it would be necessary... And I think... Goku, I think over the years I have developed feelings for him... When you weren't around and I needed somebody to cheer me up or support me or just somebody to talk to... I would call him or go see him and he's always been able to-... I know you and I always had our issues... I loved you, I really did, but over time-" _

_He had stopped listening for a moment just there, because something stuck out vividly to him, as though the words that'd popped out of her mouth had an echo to them._

_I loved you. I really did._

_Loved you._

_Loved._

_'That's past tense...'_

_"...I did not want to either lie about this or hide it from you. I don't want to be having an affair on the side, I can't do that to you... I can't be seriously involved with another man without you knowing the truth... But I can't be with you without trying to- I want to be with him. I want to see how it's like... A normal relationship, a normal date, a normal life... Goku-"_

_"It's okay," his own voice surprised him, soft and easy-going. He felt his lips stretch a smile. Somewhere, he had always known this day would come. Someday, he knew his wife would run out of patience with him and he didn't blame her, not one bit. He was a hero and a savior... and he was the farthest thing from a perfect husband there could ever be. It had only been a matter of time until she'd realize that... He'd always known. _

_Reaching out a hand he placed it above her entwined own, squeezing softly. "It's okay, Chi. I understand." He didn't want to see her unhappy, never had. He wanted her to have the man she had dreamed of when she married him and he was sorry he didn't turn out to be that man. If she thought she had found somebody who could be that man for her... then she had his blessing on trying to find that happiness with him. _

_Goku felt his wife's hands escape from under his large palm and clasp around it tightly, hot droplets falling on his skin as her head dropped down. "I'm sorry, Goku-sa... I wish I didn't feel this way but I can't-" Can't stop falling out of love with you._

_"It's okay," he repeated, stroking his thumb over the smooth back of her delicate hand. It had always seemed so fragile. Fragile like their bond had always been. Feelings weren't something you could suppress forever. Or retrieve once they were gone._

Goku's body dipped down towards the river he was flying over, causing the water to rise left and right of him from the momentum of his movement. He had given his approval to it, today Chichi had gone on her first official date with a man he didn't know the name or the face of. Didn't want to. He didn't need to see the man he could never be. Chichi hadn't wanted to tell anyone about them splitting up just yet and he didn't mind, she could take as much time as she needed. Goku himself certainly wouldn't shout the news from the rooftops.

As he flew, soaring to the skies and back towards the earth, speeding up and slowing down, bits and pieces of her confessions were fluttering around aimlessly in his head.

_...I met somebody... Another man._

_...could see that my marriage didn't seem to make me as happy as I deserved to be..._

_... you weren't around and I needed somebody..._

_...you and I have always had our issues..._

He hadn't even noticed that he'd done a lap around the earth's orbit and had just passed his house again, now flying once more over the dense woods surrounding his falling apart home.

_...I loved you, I really did, but over time..._

_...I can't be with you without trying to..._

_...I want to see how it's like..._

True love. Undying passion. Eternal bonds. Yes, how was that like? How was it like to find a soul mate and love them unconditionally while being loved back just as strongly...? Maybe this was his chance, too. A chance to start fresh. Then again, did a perfect mate even exist for somebody like him? He who found excitement in battle, he who was ready to leave everything behind to follow the call of challenge, listening to the cry of power? He who loved an earth-shaking fight, he who found his heart beating the fastest not when he was together with his wife but when he was facing a seemingly unbeatable opponent? He who found joy and thrill when he was getting beat up to a bloody pulp only to rise up and give somebody a bloody beating right back?

He knew Chichi had always hated that side of him, the one that was his Saiyan nature, unforgettable no matter how hard or how often he would hit his head or get hit on it by somebody else. Yes, he had saved the earth and even the universe several times but there was no denying that Goku also sought trouble out. He couldn't stay away and let somebody else handle it; didn't want to. He couldn't go long without fighting, even if it was simple training. He had to go off and search out another challenge, push against the own boundaries, surpass the own limits. He would die of boredom doing a regular job, living a regular life – the life that she had always wanted. He could never imagine it. Vegeta had explained it to him over and over again – it was in their blood. That's how they were, the Saiyans. Always on the lookout for destruction, always on a drive for death.

He wondered if the prince suffered the same? If he had to struggle with it every day, too? Probably it was even harder on Vegeta; after having lived the way a Saiyan was supposed to live it must have been excruciatingly hard to adapt to an earthling's peaceful way of being and existing, striving for harmony and serenity. No wonder the older Saiyan was perpetually irate and restless... How did he cope? How did he handle it? Hm... Maybe it was worth visiting Capsule Corp. and just... ask. Goku wasn't sure if Vegeta would be all too willing to talk to him about things like that but who else could he really turn to? Who else would be able to understand what was going on inside him? They were the last two remaining, living members of their race. Full-blooded Saiyans with a full-blooded thirst for battle and strife. Collision. Conquest. Combat.

Besides, after everything they've been through together, especially during the entire Buu-dilemma, Son Goku had the feeling that Vegeta's disposition towards him had shifted to a more... mellow kind of animosity. He knew the other man would be forever pissed at him for surpassing the prince time and again in terms of power levels but rivalry and hatred were two different things. Goku didn't mind them being rivals, in a sense it was exciting and fostering. The thing he knew for sure was that they were no longer enemies and that was all he needed to know to consider Vegeta a comrade, much like Piccolo or Buu – all of them had once broken almost every bone in Goku's body but today, he would catch a blow in battle for any one of them.

So after hanging in the air for a while, thinking, the Saiyan warrior faced the direction of Capsule Corp. and blasted off towards it although his flight didn't last too long. He stopped again and hovered above another forest now, feeling an unusual ki that was sparkling beneath him, moving as though somebody was running until they abruptly froze on the spot. Frowning, he gravitated down towards it and was surprised to find someone lying face down in a mud bank. He landed, feet soundlessly touching the ground and stepped closer to the unmoving body. It was lithe and lissom and apparently about to suffocate which was no wonder considering where and how it lay.

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!", he murmured, hurrying over to fall down to one knee and pick the unlucky presence out of their soon-to-be grave. He juggled the slender figure in his hold, having their head pooled in the curve of his arm now, face up. It was a young, blonde girl, her hair slicked with mud and sticking to her pale face; she was unconscious but alive.

"Oi. Oi, come on. Breathe," tilting her forward a bit with his second arm catching her around the front of her waist he gently tapped at her back. Needless to say his strength was still more than enough to have her coughing hard soon, spitting muddy water out of her trachea. She had a very strange ki, it was not stronger than that of a human but it felt very different – Goku had never sensed anything similar before, with all the planets he had been to and with all the people he had met and fought. He wondered who she was though right now was evidently not the time for questions.

He felt her hand rise, her long fingers curling into his gi and clutching desperately at the material as cough after cough kept roaring up her throat. No doubt it had to be painful, still Goku was glad she was breathing again.

"That's it, just keep breathing. Keep breathing. It'll get better in a minute," he soothed, now no longer knocking at her back but simply stroking it in calming circles. What was she doing out here all alone? Spare for the wildlife that was common around here, he couldn't sense anyone else nearby, or at least close enough to be associated with her appearance.

His attention swayed back to the girl in his arms when she had finally stopped coughing and slacked abruptly in his hold, likely back in the clutches of unconsciousness. Well, this would be one more reason for him to stop at Bulma's, one that probably wouldn't earn him as odd of a look as: hi, I'm here to see Vegeta for a heart-to-heart.

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If you liked what you read and want to see a continuation, drop a review! My muses can always use the motivation and how fast the next update'll come is entirely up to you guys =3

Till then, Nuine, logging out!


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